Readers Write: The Missing Clinical Voice in Healthcare IT

The Missing Clinical Voice in Healthcare IT
By Susan Grant, DNP, RN

Susan Grant, DNP, RN, is chief clinical officer at Symplr.

For years, the weight of healthcare technology decisions has fallen solely on IT teams, inadvertently leaving clinicians and IT operating in silos. Yet clinicians play a critical role in determining whether technology implementations succeed. Deloitte research shows that clinicians rate technology initiatives far more positively when we are actively involved, from design through implementation.

Despite this, only 38% of frontline clinicians report having been consulted on digital health workflows or new applications. We need to bring the clinical perspective into technology decisions earlier and  more consistently. With physician use of AI already up 78% from 2023, clinicians both want and deserve a larger role in shaping these conversations.

The value of clinical input
Health systems must engage across departments, from IT to executives and clinical teams, to deliver successful technology implementations. Nurses alone make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce. Because clinicians directly experience the problems that many solutions aim to solve, they offer essential insights that should guide decision-making.

Cross-functional communication is equally critical. Open discussions about technology challenges and workflow pain points help to align around the shared goal of streamlining work so that providers can focus on patient care. These conversations also allow IT professionals to demonstrate the benefits of new tools early, reducing resistance and building confidence that the technology reflects clinicians’ needs.

Historically, clinicians have too often been excluded from these conversations, leading to painful rollouts, misaligned expectations, and limited influence over tools designed for them. Bringing the clinical voice to the table can change all of that.

Clinicians want to be more involved

Clinicians want to play a bigger role in healthcare technology decisions. Our 2025 Compass Survey shows that 85% of clinicians want more influence over software purchasing decisions, up from 72% last year and 51% in 2022. This trend shows that care teams no longer view technology and innovation as strictly an IT responsibility. They recognize the value technology brings to their daily work and to delivering optimal care.

IT and operations professionals also acknowledge the advantage that clinicians bring to these decisions. Both groups show increased interest in clinician involvement. This year’s survey found that 77% of operations leaders and 76% of IT teams actively seek clinician participation.

What’s next?

Organizations are seeking to implement technology that improves care delivery, including AI and scheduling tools. Ensuring that clinicians participate throughout the full implementation process prevents problematic deployments and increases ROI. As a former nursing leader at large health systems, I’ve seen the direct positive impact digital tools can have on clinicians, saving time, reducing stress, and ultimately improving the healthcare experience for patients.

We are in the midst of a clinical shortage, with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing reporting that 40% of RNs intend to leave the field in the next five years. Ensuring that clinical voices guide technology decisions can improve daily life for this workforce.

Strengthen alignment and communication

Healthcare leaders can take several approaches to address this issue. Teams should begin by aligning on central priorities across clinical and IT groups to foster communication and gain a better understanding of each other’s goals. While they may have different priorities, both sides share the guiding objective of improving patient care.

Leadership should demonstrate the value of technology upfront to strengthen clinicians’ trust. After facing so many initiatives that have not helped, clinicians need concrete examples of how new tools can make their jobs easier.

To increase clarity and confidence in new tools, leadership should also provide comprehensive training and education for the healthcare workers who will use them. This approach offers transparency and addresses change fatigue, helping differentiate new technology rollouts from earlier efforts that left clinicians burned out.

Opening the lines of communication in a continuous and intentional way can transform how systems operate. When leaders gather clinical input before decisions and continue the conversation post-rollout, they increase collaboration, elevate clinician voices, and improve the success of each initiative.

Learn from past experiences

To share a personal example, in a previous role I saw nurses become frustrated with a new AI tool because incoming messages disrupted their communication with other providers. A simple conversation could have revealed this problem sooner. But because consideration of ongoing feedback was not a part of the post-implementation plan, no one realized that the tool designed to help them was instead creating more work.

When healthcare organizations use these strategies and place greater value on the clinical experience, they create a culture of innovation and collaboration that increases enthusiasm for change and avoids overpromising and underdelivering.